


Drowning

by RamenTulips



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, F/M, Human magic is a thing, Hurt/Comfort, Monsters on the Surface, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Second Person, Rating May Change, Recovery, Recreational Drug Use, Slow Burn, Soulmates are a thing, Strangers to Lovers, Swearing, Unreliable Narrator, reader doesnt want anything to do with magic or soulmates, reader has a drinking problem, reader is a Mess, reader is a damn bitch when drunk, reader is very forgetful
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2020-12-31 18:29:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21150248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RamenTulips/pseuds/RamenTulips
Summary: Everything changed the day Monsters emerged from Mt. Ebott, no one really complained when everyone gained a little magic. No one complained when they realized they had soulmates.You would argue that it's ruined your life.You're a college dropout, given the ability to feel everything anyone else feels, deep in your soul.You drink to save yourself from feeling, and the thought of being forced to be someone's soulmate forever fills you with dread.Fate has a funny way of giving you everything you don't think you need.Maybe you'll change your mind for a certain skeleton.May be hard, considering you're both kind of assholes that didn't ask for this.





	1. When Drinking Too Much Goes A Little Too Far

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little warning, there will be heavy drinking and drug use in this. I don't want anyone caught off guard by that so I'm saying it now.

It was a cool Monday night, not too many people, or monsters, roaming about. The moderate temperature, cool breeze, and full moon made it the perfect night, and somewhere on a park bench, a young woman was reading a good book and drinking a warm cider. She was possibly thinking about the cute guy from the office, or what kind of groceries she needed to pick up before she headed to her small, yet surprisingly cozy, apartment, with her nice roommates. Hey, maybe she even had a cute cat or something.

However, that woman was not you.

Maybe at some point in your life, you could’ve been the “peaceful woman sitting on a park bench with the nice life” type, but you clearly, definitely weren’t.

At the present moment, even though it was only Monday, you were seated at a bar. You weren’t really sure how long you’d been sitting here, but you knew it definitely wasn’t dark outside when you sat down.

But like most nights, after already being pretty messed up before you even started drinking, the shots meld together and you lose track of the time.

Tonight wasn’t any different, the only thing different is the location. See, you had quite the reputation around the city. And while you would love to say it was for your kind personality or brilliant charisma, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Ever since the barrier broke about a year ago (maybe two years? who could keep track of that stuff), things have been difficult for you. You used to just go through school and work and relationships like everyone else, you had responsibility, hobbies, and you, like most other young, naive people, couldn’t wait to one day have the perfect job, and family, and live happily ever after.

But then the barrier broke, and a rush of magic settled into everyone on the planet. Magic everyone had once upon a time, locked away under a mountain along with all of monster kind. Every human suddenly had some type of minor magic, all different, and nothing compared to what the monsters were packing, but it was certainly there.

Some people had such minor abilities, they didn’t bother talking about it at all. Like being able to keep houseplants alive, or always knowing if someone needed to drink water. Stupid crap like that.

Your magic however, made things a little too overwhelming. You couldn’t quite describe your newfound ability, but you knew it was too much for you to handle all at once. You could feel everything people felt, deep in your soul, you could feel it, hear it, and if you really concentrated, you could see it.

It made being around people too hard, you dropped out of college, lost your job, most of your friends abandoned you. You had nothing because of some lousy, useless ability.

So you were now what your roommates, family, past therapists, teachers, and employers would call, a fucking mess. You were almost never sober anymore, it was hard to hold down a job, you were overall just angry at how cruel fate could be.

You were a disaster, almost everyone in your part of town knew that. Your only friends were your roommates, but if you let yourself feel long enough, you knew they only pitied you.

And so here you were, on a Monday night, drinking at a new monster bar. You’d finally been thrown out and banned from every bar on your side of town.

This last time it was because some bitch thought it would be smart to mouth off to you after she sat in the barstool next to you. Apparently she needed your seat for her “soulmate” or whatever. You were there first so you obviously told her to fuck off and when she didn’t? You ended up with a nasty cut on your face from her ring and she ended up in a body bag.

Okay that was exaggerating, you obviously didn’t kill her. She left the bar with a broken nose and a shattered wrist. She couldn’t press charges since she swung (and missed) first, but security had to escort you both off of the property and you were now unfortunately banned from that bar.

Maybe it was a bad thing they let you leave your shift early last night, you just ended up getting into another bar fight.

You were so thankful when a new monster district opened up with new restaurants and bars for you to get kicked out of when you finally exhausted all of the old ones.

And now you were here, trying out some place called “Grillby’s”. It seemed nice enough, it had a nice atmosphere and the drinks weren’t too expensive. Although it was clear the fire elemental monster behind the bar didn’t know much about human drinks, he was making them way stronger than you were used to at human bars. Not that you were complaining.

Having realized you’ve been zoned out for a hot minute, you looked down at your cracked phone screen, the time read 11:17 PM. You checked the baggie you kept gold in to make sure you could afford another round. You didn’t carry much gold around, you didn't frequent very many monster establishments. Frankly you couldn’t really afford the exchange rate, but you also hated owing people money, even if was just a bar tab. You really couldn’t afford to lose another molar because you were stupid with your money (or lack of), so you tried to only drink what you could pay for. It was one of your only good habits, the missing teeth were a really good reminder to keep said good habit.

You flagged down the previously mentioned purple fire elemental monster behind the bar, (he ran the bar, so Grillby, you could only assume?) for another shot of tequila. “Could I get a vodka cranberry too? Need to sober up a bit if ya know what I mean?” You snorted and put the last of your gold on the bar. Your speech was very slurred and you were surprised you hadn’t been cut off yet. Maybe he couldn’t tell you were that drunk because he didn’t serve very many humans. Or maybe he just didn’t care.

Grillby took your empty glass and gold and replaced it with a shot and the vodka cranberry, you nodded as a quick ‘thank you’ and he nodded back, the jagged white light on his face pulled up into a smirk.

You felt your phone vibrate and before you checked it you downed the shot, appreciating the burn, not that it burned as much as normal since you were very drunk at this point in the night.

If you were in a more familiar bar, you probably would’ve been kicked out about two hours ago. Usually not because you were that drunk, but most bars didn’t want you in there for too long, you’ve done a lot of stupid shit after 9 PM. Shaking away the thought, you checked your phone and sipped your vodka cranberry.

  
**2 Unread Messages**

tracy (work bitch)  
11:21 PM  
_Hey its after 5 pm so I know ur probably in the middle of wrecking someones marriage or whatever it is u do but im sick and Carlos said to tell u to come in and cover for me. can you be here asap?? thx_

nathan  
11:05 PM  
_Hey I don’t know when you were planning on coming home, but I’m having a few friends over and Dylan’s staying at Jessica’s tonight so me and Britt are gonna hang out here, when you get home tonight don’t cause too much trouble, we’re gonna be in my room._

You groaned and sent an angry _“fuck you its my only night off this week, find someone else to cover your stupid fucking shift”_ to your coworker, and just ignored your roommate. He was the more laid back one, he didn’t need you to respond. You looked down and realized you had almost finished your drink and you didn’t know where you were going to go after this, since you really didn’t like Nathan’s friends or girlfriend.

While you finished your final drink for the night, you heard someone slide into the seat next to you. “hey doll, why the long face?” a gruff voice said from the barstool next to yours. When you glanced over, it was a short skeleton monster with sharp teeth and a black jacket.

Now, as someone who has gotten kicked out of a lot of bars, someone calling you “doll” unprompted would usually be enough to coax a fight out of you, but you were drunk enough to not really care, and more interested in this talking skeleton. You concentrated in your drunken state to feel if he held any malice towards you, you felt nothing (which was the point of drinking) and frankly the way his red eye lights trailed down your body intrigued you enough that you didn’t really care what he felt.

“Oh, just lookin for some company,” you slurred, eyeing him curiously. His grin widened and he ordered four shots of whiskey when Grillby passed the two of you. Grillby was hard to read in this state, but there didn't sound like there was ill-will directed towards the monster next to you and you heard him say something for the first time all night.

Unfortunately after getting trashed for the better part of the evening you couldn’t quite make it out over the sound of the jukebox in the corner and your own jumbled thoughts.

You were kind of struggling to organize everything going on in your head over the buzzing of all of the soul power in this bar. Monsters were a little harder for you to read but you could always hear them, since they were pretty much all soul. Drinking usually drowned it out, but there was a line and you clearly flew over it, now it was right there at the front of your mind.

While in your head you were just thinking about how loud the soul next to you was, you felt yourself talking, hopefully you didn’t sound too stupid because frankly you weren’t paying attention to anything you were saying.

“hey no skin off my nose,” he winked when you let out a small drunken snort, “wouldn’t wanna miss my _shot_ with such a pretty thing.” 

“Oh,” you definitely weren’t going home tonight. You’ve had enough drunken flings to know exactly where this was going. And you were always down to branch out away from your normal booty calls. And hey, it gave you something to do until your apartment was clear of assholes again.

The shots were slid in front of you, and while sober, you would’ve known that there’s a reason you don’t drink whiskey, because it makes you feel terrible. But you’re too drunk to care and downed them in two quick gulps. You almost couldn’t taste them. Key word, almost.

You could hear him talking, but you couldn’t really focus on his words. He didn’t order anymore drinks for you, but he nursed a glass of something. Or maybe, more than one glass? You couldn’t really focus your eyes anymore, so you just nodded along and chuckled when it sounded like he was making a joke. Sometimes you felt yourself say something but you pretty much just let your mouth do the talking for you and hoped you didn’t sound too stupid.

You knew you should be more worried about how messed up you felt, but your mind was tuning everyone out again as the whiskey settled in your stomach. And hey, at least you were still inside and hadn’t been kicked out yet. And if the bartender happened to kick you out tonight, it was like March or something so it wasn’t snowing outside. That wasn’t a situation you would want to repeat.

You felt the monster’s hand on the small of your back so you went ahead and assumed the two of you were leaving and stumbled onto your feet. You made sure the strap of your bag was on your shoulder, thankful it’s was like a satchel and you didn’t have to actually hold it.

The second you stood up the world tilted you knew you were very very drunk. You couldn’t really tell what was happening, so you held onto the sleeve of his jacket and stumbled along with his hand still on the small of your back. It’s amazing that you were still upright.

“hey, hey did ya hear me?” You snapped your attention to him and tried to focus on his words.

“Yeah! What’d ya say?” He chuckled nervously and said something about a shortcut and put his arms around your waist. You put your arms on his shoulders and before you could do anything else you felt the ground fall out from under you. You became even more disoriented than before, and collapsed the second you felt solid ground again.

You didn’t know what the hell just happened, but you did know that it was too much for you in this drunken state. The world spun and you stumbled to find your footing again.

You heard some shouting and assumed you were still in the bar and moved too fast or something. You let out a string of curses as you stumbled and hit the wall next to you before passing out.


	2. Unfamiliar Places, Semifamiliar Faces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I normally wouldn't post updates so close together, but I'm trying to get ball rolling a little bit :)

It’s like, stupid bright in the room you wake up in.

Thankfully, while the headache you wake up with is pretty bad, it couldn’t even be ranked on the list of the worst headaches you’ve ever had after a night of questionable decisions. You’ve done a lot of stupid shit, and you’re no stranger to waking up feeling like garbage.

You’re also no stranger to waking up in strange places with no memory of how you ended up there. You squint around for your bag and groan when you don’t immediately see it, hoping it’s just on a kitchen table or something and not in an alley somewhere. You look around at your surroundings and realize you’re not in a bed, but on a pull out couch in a very nice, spacious apartment.

You’re actually pretty impressed with how nice this apartment looks, you never really end up with people that lived anywhere nice. Usually if you wake up on a couch, it can be assumed that there was no bed to end up on. You’ve also woken up on floors for similar reasons, which in hindsight, should be eye opening. It never is though.

That was obviously not the case now, you felt like you couldn’t even afford to be sitting in here. You were surrounded by nice furniture and a huge flat screen stared down at you. This was one of those apartments that had two stories, several rooms and bathrooms, a balcony, and a great view overlooking the city, one that you’d see on TV and scoff because there was no way anyone normal could afford to live anywhere like that.

Clearly you were wrong.

You stand up slowly, trying not to make your nausea too much worse, and see your bag on a chair near the couch. You have so much useful shit in your there, it’s basically an overnight bag, and emergency kit. If the point of an emergency kit was to help with hangovers and painful come-downs, or to get you really fucked up at any moments notice. You keep it on you at all times.

You move to grab it and quickly dig your phone out and see it’s only 9:43 in the morning, meaning you still had plenty of time to get home before your late night shift. You skim your messages, seeing your "sick" coworker never got back to you (which wasn't your problem), and you ignore the ones from your two roommates. You remind yourself to delete the one from your dad later.

You need some water or pain medicine or anything, but you’d feel weird looking around. You try to gauge where you are in the city by looking through the massive window that was basically the entire wall, but your increasing headache makes it hard too.

Okay, a little bit of panic sets in. You’ve somehow ended up in a very nice apartment in an unfamiliar part of town, with a stranger you can only vaguely remember. It would be better if you could recognize anything, or if you could remember how you got here, but you really have no idea where in the city you are. The only thing that kind of calms you a little is that you still have all of your clothes on, the only thing removed being your boots, must’ve been a quick night.

“Ugh fuck it,” you whisper, head pounding from the well lit living space, would it hurt to get some curtains in here? Some people have no taste. You grumble about shitty interior decorating as you walk through a dining area into the kitchen, clutching your bag to your body. You open a few cabinets quietly until you find the glasses.

You fill one with water from the tap and drink it at fast as you can. You fill the glass again and rifle through your bag until you find your aspirin and one of your (many) flasks. You take two and take a long drink from the flask, you return everything back into the bag and sip more of the water. You already start feeling a little better.

Nothing like a little hair of the dog or whatever that saying is.

You clean the glass with the dish soap next to the sink and wonder how you haven’t seen anyone here. You assumed the stranger from the bar wouldn’t just leave you in their nice apartment alone, but you haven’t seen or heard anyone. You dry the glass and put it back where you found it.

Well, you’re not one to wait around for an awkward encounter after a one night stand. Luxury apartment or no, you can probably find your way back into the shitty part of town you live in. You pat yourself down and make sure you have everything, and check your bag to make sure you didn’t lose anything at some point.

You’re right next to the front door when you seen your reflection in the very large wall mirror on a coat closet door. You noticed someone had bandaged the cut on your cheek from a few nights ago, but other than that you looked like the same old fucking disaster. Then you notice a new bruise on your temple.

You start trying to piece together more information from the night before, apparently you met someone in that monster bar and let them drag you into the rich part of Ebott so you could have quick sex. And at some point you hit your head before the stranger made you sleep on the couch? And at some point bandaged the cut you had completely forgotten about.

Oh well, you’ve had worse nights. Just as you put your hand on the door to open it, you hear someone descending the spiral staircase into the living room.

“oh you're up,” It was the same guy from the night before, you could feel his apprehension from across the room.

“Yeah don’t worry, I was just leaving,” You didn’t want to be here anymore, you should’ve drank more when you took the aspirin, you hated feeling stranger's feelings, especially stranger's you've slept with. The regret was always a little overbearing coming from you and someone else. 

You saw the skeleton quickly check his phone, and slip it back into his pocket. “yeah, my brother will be home any minute, so,” he was sweating, the nervous energy was basically screaming at you. You were getting so much secondhand embarrassment your, now clammy, hands were shaking. “he’s a lot, especially considerin’,” It sounded like he cleared his throat, but you didn’t know if you could call it that.

You put your shaky hand up, “Yeah I get it, my roommates don’t like seeing the people I fuck either,” You felt the mood quickly shift from nervousness to shock and confusion the second the word “fuck” came out of your mouth. You kept the questioning look off of your face, not wanting to give away that you knew his mood changed.

“doll, I dunno what ya remember, but we definitely didn’t fuck,” And now you were confused.

It explains why your clothes were still on and why you were on a pullout couch, “Then what am I doing here?” You could’ve sworn this guy was putting the moves on you last night before you blacked out.

“don’t get me wrong babe,” his eyelights roamed your body and you tried to block out the inappropriate vibes coming from his soul. “we were gonna but uh, ya clearly weren’t in a position to do anythin’. so I brought ya here to sleep it off. ya hit your head when we got here, my bro uh, wasn't too happy about it."

Well that’s a first. Unfortunately, you’ve never had anyone just let you sleep something off without expecting something else after. Which again, should be a wake up call.

“Oh. Well, thank you. I never quite got your name?”

"it’s sans,” The apprehension was back, you figured you should probably go now. You introduced yourself properly.

“Well nice to meet you Sans, if you’re lucky, we’ll never meet again,” And then you were gone.

Thankfully, you didn’t pass any other skeletons in the hall or elevator. You didn’t know what Sans’ brother looked like, or if he would remember you from last night, but you didn't really wanna find out and emptied a flask to sooth your anxiety about it.

Sans’ apartment was on the 15th floor of this building, you were clearly in the really new part of Ebott with really tall buildings. Since you’d be in the elevator for a hot minute, you finally checked your messages.

**3 Unread Messages **

**dylan**

**9:51 AM **

_hey nathan said you didnt come home last night? that’s 2 nights you haven’t been home. are you coming home before work? did you ever pick up the car yesterday?_

**dad**

**8:17 AM **

_Call me. _

**nathan**

**7:23 AM**

_I didn’t say not to come home. You said you’d let us know if you’re staying out, remember? Do you have the car?_

Oh shit the car, did you get the car? You thought over your whole day before you went to the bar, and to your knowledge, you did not get the car.

Your roommates were gonna be pissed. They would pretend they weren’t because they thought you were “fragile” or whatever, but they obviously knew you could feel when they were pissed.

The elevator stopped at a few floors on the way down and you felt super out of place here. The booze was finally working, and you were glad you couldn’t really feel the judgment coming from these random people.

You shook away your haze when the elevator finally stopped on the bottom floor. You bolted out into the lobby, and out of the doors to the building.

If you hadn’t been in such a rush, you would’ve been paying attention to the slight pull on your chest.

If you hadn't been in slight drunken daze you would've noticed a tall skeleton monster with an angry scowl heading towards the building's staircase. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on tumblr, username @spookygarbagefire :)


	3. A Slap in the Face from Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little background and character introduction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little long, but I really just wanted to get all of this part done :)
> 
> There's drug use in this chapter.

“Okay if i just keep goin’ down this road and hang a left for like 4 miles I should make it to the auto shop before it closes,” you were staring at a map of Ebott you bought at the little corner store near the apartment.

You were completely unfamiliar with this part of town. You knew how out of place you looked here and just hoped you didn’t look suspicious. The last thing you needed was to get picked up for loitering or something.

It was times like these that made you remember how much Ebott had expanded in such a short amount of time, you could remember a time in your childhood when basically no one lived here. Once the barrier broke, this mountain town became the capital of all things monster and magic, so naturally more people moved here.

That was also part of the reason your power was so overwhelming, if things had just stayed quiet here you probably could’ve handled it. Unfortunately the population was now so large you could feel someone no matter where you were.

Your thoughts drifted away from your magic and to your parents as you made your way past the windows of some of the more touristy shops.

Your father was a strict man, a police officer in the past, and now a detective of Ebott. He could always tell if you were lying now that his souls gifted him the ability. He definitely was not your biggest fan. Everything you did pissed him off, he always said you reminded him of your mother. Which was not a compliment coming from him.

Your mother had always been flighty and moody when it came to you, she ran away with some guy when you were still in grade school. She didn’t even live in Ebott when the barrier broke, preferring to send the odd text and drop by on you and your sister’s birthdays if you were lucky. Now she was always up your ass about going to dinner with your sister and her soulmate more and going to bars less. She was afraid if you were always bar crawling your soulmate was going to be like you.

That was another thing that pissed you off, once everyone suddenly had magic, soulmates were now a real thing. You lock eyes with the right person, suddenly you’re destined to be together forever.

It caused a lot of problems for a lot of people right away, people that had been married for years suddenly finding out they had a soulmate. Families getting ripped apart just because your souls decided it needed to be with one specific random person. It was messy and you didn’t see the point in letting fate decide who should spend your life with.

You didn’t see the point. If you’re already married, what’s the point of ruining your own life just because the universe told you to be with a stranger. It felt less like destiny and more like a way for the universe to trap you.

So you just did whatever you wanted, and honestly after all of the nights you’ve spent with strangers, you’d think statistically, one of them would be your soulmate. But you’ve started to realize that it was hard to lock eyes with someone if you were too fucked up to see straight, so you tried to keep it that way when you hung around people. Not that you weren’t doing that anyway, drinking was a win-win when it came to shrugging off the obligations the universe just dumped into your lap.

If you were lucky, you would never find them. Or if you were even luckier, you didn’t have one at all. You didn’t need that kind of stress in your life. Whoever got shafted with you would be in for a rude awakening. Maybe if you were one day forced to confront your soulmate, it would be one of those platonic scenarios where they hated love or something and just wanted to be friends. You’d be down for that.

After about an hour of walking and pondering all of the bullshit that surfaced along with the monsters, you finally reached a part of town you were familiar with.

The auto shop was uneventful, you had to slip the front desk person a few bucks to not impound your car for being late to pick up, but that’s your fault for being a dumbass.

And now the part of the day you had been dreading, talking to your roommates. They were getting fed up with your drunken shenanigans, you could tell. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too hard on you since you had the car now.

The drive home could’ve been worse, you probably shouldn’t be drinking and driving anymore, that’s how the car ended up in the auto shop in the first place. Too bad that was a judgement call you didn’t even think to make until you were in your buildings shady parking lot. If you could call it that, it was more like an alley with spray painted parking lines.

The apartment building wasn’t very nice, most people wouldn’t want to bring anyone back to this kind of place. Needles were littered behind the building, there were broken bottles and shattered glass all over the place, the graffiti was out of control, and some pretty shady people lived there. The landlord didn’t care and it was in you and your roommates’ price range. So you just lived with it and always wore closed toed shoes.

You kicked an empty can and slowly made your way up the outdoor stairs to your door and took your keys out of your bag, dreading the upcoming conversation.

You took a deep breath and unlocked the door. “Honey I’m home!” You sang, announcing your arrival. You realized there was no need too, both men were sitting on the couch, presumably waiting for you.

Nathan, who was currently smoking a blunt and watching TV, was a bearded man that built and repaired pools for a living. He went through more women than anyone you had ever met, he was the most charismatic man you knew. He had always been, but after the barrier broke, he was suddenly able to befriend literally anyone. You’ve seen the man talk his way out of bad breakups, unnecessary fines, and even tickets. You once saw him talk his way out of potential jail time. Now there was a useful ability.

Your other roommate Dylan, who was staring at his phone and picking at his skin out of nervous habit, was tall, blond, and tan. He was currently the assistant manager of the shitty movie theater down the road. He was also the only one of you still enrolled in school, to become a counselor. The barrier breaking had gifted him greatly, giving him the ability to get anyone to spill basically whatever he wanted if he got them talking long enough. He’d been your best friend for years before you’d all moved in together.

The two men stared at you expectantly, presumably waiting for you to explain where you had been for the last two days. Nathan broke the silence when it was clear you weren’t going to say anything.

“So did you get the car?” He looked back at the now muted TV and took a drag.

“Obviously I got the car, you asked me to didn’t you?” You rolled your eyes. “Honestly, it’s like you guys think I don’t listen,” You pulled your boots off and placed them next to door.

“Hey Dylan, remind me when we asked if she would get the car?” Nathan spat, still looking at the TV instead of you.

“Thursday,” Dylan was looking right into your eyes, as if he wanted you to feel his disappointment. Joke was on him, you were just drunk enough to be able to ignore the suffocating feeling. “Oh yeah, and we reminded her every day after that,” Okay yeah, whoops.

“Well I got it now, so you’re welcome,” You started walking through the living room to the kitchen. You tossed the car keys onto the coffee table where Nathan’s feet were propped up.

You started rifling through the fridge when you heard Dylan begin to speak again, “So I know you’re an adult, and you can make your own choices,” you turned around to see him leaning against the cabinets behind you. “But you were gone for two days, and didn’t text us once. I thought you were dead in a trunk or something,” You rolled your eyes and turned to keep looking in the fridge.

“I know what you’re trying to do and it won’t work on me. Go use that prying bullshit on someone who gives a fuck. Do we have any eggs?” If you were sober, you would’ve felt the hurt you’d just inflicted on his soul.

You could almost hear him clench his fists. “You were supposed to bring home groceries after your Sunday shift, but you never came home, remember?” You sighed and shut the fridge door, turning around and crossing your arms. You couldn’t meet his eyes so you just stared at the dirty floor and leaned against the fridge. “Are you already drunk? It’s barely noon. And what happened to your face?” He was trying to get you to talk. You knew from experience if you kept resisting he would eventually get everything out of you and then some, so you complied a little.

“Some bitch hit me,” before you could say anything else Nathan walked into the kitchen, not that he couldn’t hear everything from the living room, it was basically all one big room.

“So another bar fight? You clearly hit the bitch back, your knuckles are bruised again,” Nathan gestured to the bruising on your knuckles you hadn’t even noticed.

You didn’t need this, you angrily shoved your way past the both of them, grumbling about taking a shower and a nap before work.

You stepped into your small room and slammed the door, ripping your bag off your body and throwing it onto your unmade bed. You were tired of the third degree from everyone. You grabbed some clothes off of the floor and left your room again to shower.

You were slamming doors mostly to show Dylan and Nathan that you were mad at them, so when you stepped into the small bathroom you all shared, you finally let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding.

Looking into the mirror, you had definitely seen better days. After not showering for two days, sleeping in the park for the better part of Monday morning, and running around all of this morning after blacking out the night before, you didn’t look great. You finally let yourself examine the cut under the bandage you assumed Sans applied while you were sleeping.

You winced at what you saw, it looked like it had barely even scabbed over before it was somehow reopened. It was probably going to scar, you just hoped it wouldn’t get infected. You couldn’t remember if you ever cleaned it out when you initially received the wound.

You shrugged and peeled off the dirty clothes you’d been wearing for two days, examining some of the other scars that littered your body. You usually just ignored them, but the new cut on your face made it hard not to think about some of your past injuries. Well, the ones you could remember anyway.

You shake the memories, or lack there of, out of your head, you might as well just shower so you can finally nap.

Your shower was soothing and uneventful, save for the shitty water pressure, but you were used to it. It made you wish you had somehow found a way to shower in that nice apartment. They probably had a bathtub with jets and actual hot water. You would kill to have a nice bath right about now.

You put on the clothes you grabbed from the floor and quietly made your way back into your bedroom. You made sure your “uniform” was somewhere you could just grab and throw on before work and promptly fell into a deep slumber.

_It was a normal night of studying in the library, you had a big exam coming up. For some reason you couldn’t quite remember the class, and your notes just looked like weird symbols. You ignored that though. You focused on the music playing from your headphones, you softly tapped your foot to the beat and moved your pen in the air like you were conducting. _

_Life was pretty good for you right now, your mom was MIA, but that wasn't new. Your dad was staying off your back right now, since you weren’t living in his house anymore. _

_The music swelled in your head and you bobbed your head, you felt your phone buzz. You couldn’t read what it said, but you somehow knew, it was your sister telling you to check the news. _

_You quickly pulled up the internet and just looked at what was trending, there was a picture of a bright light coming from Mt. Ebott. You glanced up to see other people in the library looking at the same news. _

_You clicked on a live feed from the mountain, the bright light was cracking. What did it mean? No one knew for sure so you just kept watching. _

_Then, the second the light shattered the video cut out and you felt a wave of something you couldn’t describe, you heard glass shattering around you. _

_The force knocked your headphones off, it was enough to knock some people out of their chairs, you had your head covered to shield from any glass or the books that were also knocked off of shelves. _

_When everything settled a bit, you cracked open your eyes, not realizing they had been screwed shut. _

_Before you could do anything other than open your eyes, you felt it, it was such intense fear. It didn’t feel like your fear, there was also confusion and nervous panic, but the fear covered it all. _

_There was a loud, constant buzzing in the back of your head and it was like everyone was shouting at you. You looked around at the others for the source of the shouting, but no one was looking at you. There were some people clutching their heads or staring at their hands, but for the most part no one was doing anything. No one was saying anything. _

_You put the headphones back on to see if the live feed was back on yet, you noticed your headphones did nothing to silence the screaming fear you were still hearing. You tried to stop your hands from shaking while watching the live feed, which was fortunately back up. _

_The news reporter was talking about some sort of creatures emerging from the mountain, monsters from the old town legends. _

_You felt some people watching over your shoulders, you noticed the closer people got to you, the louder the buzzing and shouting got, and the more intense the fear and panic felt. _

_You threw you phone onto the table. _

_You felt like you were suffocating, what was happening to you? You felt your eyes water and you struggled to breathe. You wanted to scream, but instead you pulled at your hair and tried not to freak out in this public library. _

_More and more people pulled their phones out and the feeling of panic was getting so loud, so intense, you were deaf to everything else. You could somehow almost see the fear. _

_You heard someone actually screaming, it took you a moment to realize the sound was coming from you. _

_You felt someone shake you. _

You shot out of your bed, breathing hard and shaking. You opened your eyes and saw both of your roommates staring at you with varying levels of shock, it was clear that Nathan had been the one to shake you awake, given away by his still outstretched hand.

You took a shaky breath and put your head into your clammy hands.

You could still feel panic, and you knew it was coming from the two men. You felt their panic, their apprehension. You felt their pity.

“Please leave,” You voice was hoarse. “It was just a nightmare,” You could almost see the two men exchange a look.

“It must’ve been bad, you were screaming,” Dylan spoke from the door, where he was standing behind Nathan.

You put your hands into you lap. “Please,” Your voice cracked and you stared at your hands. You didn’t need their pity, you hated it. You wished they could feel how bad pity felt, but you of course didn’t mean that, wouldn’t wish this on anyone.

“Well, we picked up dinner, it’s on the coffee table when you want it,” Nathan said, reaching into his pocket. “Here, we don’t want you drinking at work,” He handed you a baggy with two blunts in it. 

You nodded in thanks, now staring at the weed in your lap. You heard your door shut, and you knew they had left.

You didn’t smoke too often, it didn’t do what alcohol could do for you. You understood the appeal, and it did help. You could normally still feel and hear everything like you were sober, but you normally just felt indifferent to it. It didn’t completely block it out, but it made you less anxious, it was easier to ignore.

You threw the baggy on the empty pillow next to you and pulled your phone out, checking the time. it was 8:43 PM so you still had time to eat whatever the boys had grabbed for you before your night shift.

You said nothing when you walked into the living room, Dylan was with his girlfriend and soulmate, Jessica, on the couch.

If she was here that means she heard you screaming, you knew this for sure when you felt pity basically oozing off of her, still with that "Jessica Brand" of distain she always felt when you were in the room. You never really liked her, but what could you do.

You grabbed the food from the coffee table and quickly shuffled back into your room. Thinking of all of the bullshit arguments you've had with Dylan about Jessica before the two of you lived together.

They dated before the barrier broke, but broke up due to "lack of communication." Which is just a fancy way of saying they fought all the time about everything. Then the second the barrier broke and they saw each other again, just like that they got back together again just because their souls told them too.

It was stupid, their problems didn’t go away just because they were soulmates. Why get with someone you knew a relationship didn’t work with before, just because the universe told you to?

You shoved some fries into your mouth, they were a little cold, but it was the first thing you’d eaten since before your Sunday night shift, so you were starving.

Eating was a nice distraction from thinking about soulmates, which was a topic that always pissed you off. Honestly anything was a nice distraction from thinking about soulmates.

So for the next hour you ate, watched mindless trash television, and smoked a little.

Then it was time for work, you threw your uniform on, which was just a hoodie with the grocery store logo on it, and put everything you needed into your bag.

You were were an overnight stocker, it sucked, but you didn't really have to talk to anyone and no one really came to the store that late.

When you left your room, Nathan was in the living room with a few of his buddies, you made a point not to say anything and just left as soon as you could.

The walk to work was actually kind of nice, it was cool outside, and no one ever bothered you on the short walk to your workplace. However, something about tonight was giving you a weird vibe. You couldn't place it, but it felt like something big was going to happen, so you were a little apprehensive.

Fate hadn't exactly been kind to you before.

You were greeted at the door by your asshole boss, telling you the normal bullshit that needed to get done tonight, you just went on your way, doing your job like normal. Still feeling a nervous itch in the back of your mind, you could almost feel your soul bouncing.

Once a few uneventful hours passed in a daze, thanks to Nathan, you just sort of ignored it, trying not to feel your heart beating out of your chest.

Maybe you were just paranoid from the pot.

Your shift goes to 7 AM, so when you checked your phone and it was 6:30, you started making your way around the store, making sure you had done everything that needed to be done for the night.

Feeling satisfied, you found the shift lead and asked if you were good, he gave you a thumbs up. You sped to the back to clock out.

Just as you were about to leave, you remembered Dylan's jab about you not getting groceries and groaned. So you decided to make it quick and grabbed a cart. You probably looked crazy running through the store, just grabbing whatever store brand shit you figured you needed.

Something was making you really anxious, but it actually felt like your own anxiety. Your hands shook as you piled stuff into your cart.

You weren't paying attention when you took a too sharp turn into the bread section and rammed right into someone else's cart.

You looked up to apologize, but were silenced when you saw the owner of the cart was a pissed off skeleton monster, decked out in leather with their sharp teeth pulled into a scowl. This guy had to be at least 6'4''.

The second your eyes met his, you felt like your soul was trying to jump from your body. You felt a pull towards him that you couldn't comprehend.

Your panic was covered by a mix of disbelief, shock, and disgust coming from him, and it wasn't exactly subtle.

You couldn't think of anything else to do, the skeleton was staring at you, your soul was on the fritz, and everything you could normally feel from someone else's soul was about 10 times stronger coming from his.

So, you did the only thing you could think to do in that moment.

You ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on tumblr, username @spookygarbagefire :)


	4. A Little Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I got caught up in finals and holidays! I'll be posting chapter 5 shortly after this.

You didn't stop running until you reached your apartment. You didn't know when you had started crying, but when you finally sat down on the bottom step leading upstairs to your door, you let out the loud sob you had been holding in.

You were probably the most anti soulmate person in Ebott, so why was this happening to you? You couldn't even handle the bullshit that had already dropped into your lap, and now you had to deal with this too?

You felt your chest ache at the thought of the skeleton monster you were apparently destined to be with. It felt like it was pulling you, it almost hurt.

You couldn't handle this, you needed a drink.

You wiped your face with the sleeve of your hoodie and shakily stood up, making your way up the rest of the stairs and unlocking the door quietly.

Nathan worked Wednesday mornings, so you knew he would be gone. Dylan and Jessica were probably asleep in his room or at her apartment. So you made sure to enter quietly, just in case.

What you didn't account for, were Nathan's friends still being there, asleep on your couch. You rolled your eyes and slinked into your room, hoping they wouldn't wake up and bother you. Dealing with those assholes was the last thing you wanted to do.

The first thing you wanted to do was drink, but after pulling your boots and hoodie off, you realized you were too exhausted to bother drinking enough to block out everything that had just happened. You decided it would be easier to just pass out instead.

When you regained consciousness hours later after a, thankfully dreamless, slumber, the first thing you noticed was the pull on your chest was still present. It was uncomfortable, and it made you nervous.

The memories from earlier that morning came flooding back and you felt like crying again, you needed to talk to someone about this. You jumped from your bed to see if Dylan was home, he was a good listener and had experience with soulmates. Even if you didn't like the idea of said soulmate.

The first thing you noticed when you walked into the living room, was that there was a woman sitting on the couch with both of your roommates. Even with her back to you, you recognized her instantly.

Your sister, Lydia, was here. You could feel her worry, mixed with a little disappointment. All normal things she felt anytime she came to your apartment. Something about "not wanting you living like this" or whatever.

Nathan turned his head and met your eyes. He was quick to call your name.

Your sister's body quickly turned towards to you and she stood up,bounding over and greeting you with a hug. The disappointment was covered by the relief you both felt seeing each other again. She was the only one in your family that you cared about, the only one that knew how to make you feel better.

"It's been so long, dad said he tried to get in touch with you, but you wouldn't answer. So, I figured I'd come see you myself," The mention of your father left a sour taste in your mouth, but her smile filled you with warmth. So you just ignored the part about your dad.

You noticed that both of your roommates had vacated the room, probably to give the two of you time to catch up a little. You both moved to the couch.

"It's great to see you! So what's the occasion? Did mom dip again?" You asked casually, your mother leaving town was no new occurrence, so you figured that's what she needed to tell you.

"Oh no, mom is definitely still here," You felt her mood shift, she felt exited, but anxious. "I'm getting married! I wanted you to come, it's not for a while, but it really would mean a lot to me if you could be there."

You sat in silence for a moment, before opening your mouth to speak. "Married?" It was hard to conceal your shock. "To, Adam?" She had a huge smile on her face as she nodded, the excitement grew, but you could feel that she was anxious, about your reaction or the actual wedding part of it, you weren't sure.

"I know you think it's fast, but we are soulmates, and it just feels so right when I'm with him, we don't wanna wait any longer. Oh, and look!" For the first time you noticed the ring. You sucked in a breath and took her left hand in yours, examining her engagement ring.

Instead of a diamond, the ring had a deep green emerald. You could feel the love and adoration she felt while you both looked at it. She muttered to herself about how beautiful it was, and how Adam knew how much she loved emeralds.

You wanted to be happy, but with what had just happened at work, and the nervousness you knew she was feeling, you couldn't help but be worried for her. She was your baby sister after all, and the only person in the world you loved unconditionally.

You took a deep breath and faked a smile, holding her hand in between both of yours. "I'm happy for you! So when is it?"

"In a few months! I'm sure mom will send you all of the information you need after I send out the RSVPs," Your eyes met hers in disbelief.

"Why would mom be sending me information? Don't tell me she's actually coming? Is dad gonna be there?" They couldn't stand to be in the same room together.

Lydia chuckled nervously, gently pulling her hand out of your grasp. She began picking at the sleeve of her jacket, a nervous habit she developed as a child. "She's, insisted on helping me plan the whole thing, something about making up for lost time. And dad is paying for it, so he'll obviously have his say in it. I know, I was just as surprised as you are. But I know they can get along for something so important," Now you knew why she was so nervous. The last time they were in the room together was your great aunt's funeral.

That day ended in a screaming match, you thought it was kind of hilarious, but Lydia had been mortified. She was pretty much the only thing keeping your family kind of together. You had to console her for days after. Of course it was easier back then, when you couldn't actually feel what she was going through. You could just be there with her and comfort her like a normal person.

You were going to say something, but before you had the chance she pulled out her phone and gasped.

"Ugh, that time already? I have to go. I was hoping we could get lunch earlier, but I completely forgot you work nights now. Maybe next time?" You knew she was genuinely sorry, so you just smiled softly and nodded. You pulled her into a hug and you instantly were more relaxed, almost sleepy. You knew she was trying to use her magic to make you not so nervous about everything she had just told you.

"Don't use that soothing crap on me, I'm fine," She pulled away and lightly slapped your shoulder.

"Oh, I don't know why you hate it so much. It's supposed to make you feel better," She smiled.

"Whatever, be safe alright?" You wished you had more time to talk to her, you could've told her what happened at work that morning, but she was always so busy it was hard to spend any time with her as it was.

"Alright I will, love you!" And you really felt that she meant it when she said it, one of the reasons she was so great. She was so patient and kind with you even after everything that happened.

"Love you too," And just like that she was gone again.

You stared at the door after it closed, throwing yourself on the couch and putting your head into your hands. You wished she would wait a little longer to get married. She had met Adam only two months ago, it was too fast. She hardly knew the guy.

"So married huh?" You looked up and Nathan was now sitting on the other side of the couch, sipping a beer, he offered you one. You took it with a grateful smile.

"Ugh yeah, I wish she'd wait a little longer, I feel like she's jumping into this just because they're soulmates," Your voice cracked when you said the word soulmate, you felt your pain in your chest at the thought of the skeleton monster from earlier.

You took a sip of beer, wishing it was something stronger.

Nathan hummed, "You sound upset, are you about to rant about soulmates again? Because it's not my turn to listen to you bitch about the universe 'not having the right' or whatever," He winked and took another sip from his bottle.

"No, I don't really wanna talk about soulmates right now. Even though you know I'm right," You smiled, but it didn't reach your eyes. You looked down and wondered when you had finished the beer.

"Well whatever is bothering you, I'm sure I'll be hearing all about it when 'Mr. Unwanted Therapy' forces it out of you," You could tell he was trying to make you feel better, but it wasn't really working.

"When 'Mr. Unwanted Therapy' forces what out of you?" Speak of the devil, Dylan came into the room and looked at you in the eyes in that, 'I know how to make you talk so you might as well just tell me what's wrong' way that he always used on you.

You shifted, uncomfortable with the stern worry that shouted at you from his soul.

When was the last time you had a real drink? Yesterday? Monday? You had to fix that.

"Nothing's wrong, just upset about seeing my parents at the wedding my little sister shouldn't be having. Now if you'll excuse me," You stood up and placed your empty bottle on the coffee table. "I need to shower before work," It wasn't a full lie, so you weren't guilty. You avoided their suspicious eyes and ran to your room, ignoring all the doubt and frustration they knew you could feel.

You hadn't realized how much of the day you had wasted sleeping, and you had used up a good chunk of your 'getting ready time' talking to your sister.

You still took a shower, you just made sure you grabbed what was left of your cheap vodka and brought it in there with you. You were very good at multitasking when it came to finding time to drink.

By the time you were done showering, you had about an hour before your shift started, so you just threw your hoodie on and grabbed your bag. It wouldn't hurt to leave a little earlier, some extra walking might do you some good.

Before you even opened the front door, Dylan poked his head out of his room. "Did you ever eat today?" He asked.

"I'll just grab something at work, it is a grocery store remember?" You snapped in reply, you were trying not to slur your voice, but the way it came out made you sound a little bitchy. 

You were thankful you couldn't feel whatever he was feeling when you drunkenly stormed out and slammed the front door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on tumblr, username @spookygarbagefire :)


	5. Paranoia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is basically the part 2 of the last part because it got too long :P

The walk was an uneventful one, you had to pay attention to your feet, making sure you didn't trip or stumble too much. You were glad you had some time to think a little.

You felt really weird. Everything was moving too fast for you. You felt the need to get out of town for a few days or something, almost like you wanted to hide. The thought of crashing into that skeleton again filled your mind with dread but your soul with the unfamiliar feeling of longing. It was appalling, you were literally being forced to feel some kind of yearning for a stranger you had only met that morning! You didn't even know his name.

You let your drunken thoughts actually drift to said stranger for a moment. You couldn't tell how old he was, but what kind of person below the age of 45 goes to the grocery shopping at 7 in the morning? And who shops that early in all leather?

Sounded like someone you wouldn't get along with if you were being completely honest with yourself. You had a strict "no going in public until at least noon for anything but work" policy when you could help it.

You raked your brain for a clearer memory of what his face looked like, but the combination of your initial panic, current intoxication, and shitty memory wasn't giving you too much to work with.

You could only remember his teeth. They looked so sharp, pulled into a deep frown. You could definitely remember the moment he realized the same thing you did. The disgust and anger.

Maybe he felt the same way you did, maybe this wouldn't become a thing at all and the two of you could just pretend you hadn't even seen other. You ignored the pang in your soul at that thought. You weren't going to let your soul boss you around about what you should feel.

You examined your surroundings, realizing that you had let yourself kind of wander while deep in your thoughts. You were in the shitty park down the street from the grocery store.

You were suddenly very aware about the lack of street lights when heard a noise behind you.

The park seemed empty at a glance, but you concentrated on feeling for anyone else, cursing yourself for drinking before wandering into a dark, abandoned park.

You couldn't tell if anyone else was there, but you refused to let your guard down. But you couldn't shake the feeling that you were being watched. You felt mild buzzing in the back your head, someone had to be near you.

You rushed out of the park, suddenly in the mood to be in your well lit work space. Somewhere with people, and security cameras.

You felt like you were being followed the whole way to the grocery store, you could feel yourself sweating through your hoodie.

You burst into the grocery store, shaky and panting, you whirled around, paranoid and looking for anyone that could’ve been watching you.

You took a deep breath and covered your eyes with the palms of your hands, trying to calm your drunken, panicked mind down a bit.

Suddenly you felt a hand on your shoulder, causing you to instinctively scream and spin to hit whoever had been touching you. A hand caught your wrist and when your eyes focused, you realized it was your coworker, Max.

"Woah! Watch where you're swinging!" He noticed how freaked out you looked. "Are you okay dude? You look like hell," He let go of your trembling hand.

"Yeah I'm fine," Even you didn't believe that you were fine. You felt like your heart was going to beat out of your chest. You realized you were just standing in the entry way of the store when Max pulled you to the side and sat you down on the floor. Well, more like he leaned you against the wall and you slid to the floor on your own.

"I think you should go home man, we're overstaffed tonight anyway, I'm gonna get you some water and talk to Carlos about sending you home. Just stay here and try to calm down," He rushed off, leaving you sitting on the floor near the umbrellas.

You tried to focus on your breathing, but the paranoid feeling wouldn't go away. Even though the rational part of you knew nothing was going to happen to you while you were in such a public space, the drunk, irrational part of your brain was desperately trying to tap into the magic you had intentionally drowned in alcohol, just to see if anyone held any hostile feelings you could pinpoint.

You couldn't concentrate enough to feel anything, but you were sure someone had to be following you, and now they could be anywhere, just watching you.

Your paranoid thoughts were interrupted by Max walking towards you with a water bottle. When he reached you he handed you the water bottle.

"Carlos said you're good to leave, you might need to pick up an extra shift next week though," You nodded and took a shaky sip of water.

He helped you off of the floor and gave you a quick once over. Once he was satisfied that you weren't going to just collapse he gave you a quick reminder not to walk home alone and ran off back to work.

Normally you wouldn't bother trying to find someone to walk you home, you were just too proud for your own good. Tonight however, you felt very scared of what might happen if you tried to walk alone.

Just as you pulled your phone out to call Dylan to come get you, you heard a voice you recognized.

"hey doll, didn't know ya worked here," You looked up from your phone and saw that short skeleton from the other day. You blanked on his name.

"Oh hey, uh," you hesitated hoping the name would come to you, but of course it didn't. "What's up, man?" You awkwardly pocketed your phone and your paranoia was almost instantly forgotten. Your drunken mind readied itself for a conversation you didn't really care about.

He apparently picked up on your forgetfulness and chuckled before saying "it's sans," with a carefree shrug. You were almost too out of it to see the tightness in his grin. You didn't think anything of it.

"Oh yeah, Sans," You were pretty much over this conversation already. It was always awkward seeing someone you had a drunken sleepover with, whether you actually had sex or not.

You decided to end the conversation for both of your sakes. "Anyway, yeah I work here, but I was just leaving," You pulled your phone back out and sent a quick _'come get me'_ text to Dylan. You hoped your obvious disinterest would be enough to get Sans to take a hint and leave you alone, but unfortunately he pressed on.

“a little late to be wonderin’ around this part of town, don’t ya think?” He asked nonchalantly. You scoffed a little, before remembering why you were leaving in the first place. Once again you felt paranoid.

Your change in mood must've been obvious on your face because Sans continued on. "don't suppose ya need some company?" He sounded awkward, like he wasn't used to offering his time up like that.

"Uh, thanks for offering and all, I guess, but I think my roommate is coming to—" Just as you started to talk about him you felt your phone interrupt your train of thought, you groaned when you read the message Dylan sent.

**dylan**

**10:21 PM**

_nathan took the car for the night, don't know where he is with it, could ask jess if I could borrow hers it'll probably be like an hour though. are you okay?_

You sent a reluctant _"don't bother. overstaffed. be back soon."_ and looked up at Sans' bored expression looking at his own phone. You completely forgot you were like in the middle of your sentence.

He looked at you expectantly, then shrugged, and began walking away. "well if ya got it worked out, see ya."

You quickly weighed your options. You could walk back alone, and presumably be followed by whoever was out there maybe waiting for you. You felt your whole body tense in fear at the thought of walking back to your apartment alone. That obviously wasn't going to happen tonight.

You could have Dylan and Jessica pick you up in an hour, but then you'd be slightly less drunk than you were now (but still drunk nonetheless) and locked in a car with your nosey roommate and his judgmental soulmate. That didn't sound very appealing to you.

Or, you could just let Sans walk you home. He wasn't technically a stranger, and you doubted anyone would bother you if he was with you.

"Wait," You stumbled to catch up with him, "Could you? Walk me home? It's like a 20 minutes walk that way," You pointed in the general direction of your apartment.

He gave you a look you couldn't pin point, then his grin widened. "sure doll, lead the way," You sighed in relief, and the two of you exited the store together.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr, username @spookygarbagefire :)


End file.
